Magnetic pole shifts, a subject shrouded in both fascination and fear, refer to the movement of Earth's magnetic north and south poles. Unlike the geographic poles, which are fixed, magnetic poles ...

Earth’s magnetic poles are constantly on the move, but they haven’t drifted far enough to actually flip in the modern age. Researchers know that Earth’s poles have flipped in the past ...

Geographic north, which is a straight line between wherever you are on the planet and the (geographic) North Pole, doesn’t actually point at the north magnetic pole at all. It’s a bit ...

Magnetic pole flips happen randomly, sometimes taking 10,000 to 50 million years. The last full reversal, the Brunhes–Matuyama event, occurred 780,000 years ago. Around 41,000 years ago ...

If you bring a north pole and a south pole together, they will attract. Earth's core contains liquid iron which moves around. Iron is magnetic so the liquid iron causes Earth to have a magnetic field.